Oprah may have dropped the mic at the Golden Globes, but it was Melinda Gates who in an op-ed to Time Magazine shined a spotlight on the next chapter in the women’s movement: women and leadership. In her piece, Gates called for more funding for women-led organizations pointing to the success rate of women’s movements, many of which run on a “median budget.” “Simply put, women get things done,” she wrote.

Many hotels already cater to the solo female traveler with women-friendly rooms, usually with extra safety measures like double-locking doors and finishing touches like flowers and chocolates. Homesharing, however, is a bit behind that curve.

The events industry has traditionally been predominantly female, but are women managing to break the glass ceiling and take on senior positions? Sam Robson, group events director at The Appointment Group has noted a worrying trend, commenting: "I think the events industry provides great opportunities for women however I am always disappointed at awards ceremonies when the company owners or chief executives receiving the awards are generally men and the events teams are mostly women."

Need validation that the business of planning events can be nerve-wracking? Check out careercast .com’s 2017 most-stressful jobs list, on which you’ll find event coordinators occupy the fifth spot, right after police officers and before newspaper reporters.

You would think that an industry in which the majority of the workforce is female would make an effort to advance women. That may or may not be the case in exhibitions; but, to even begin a discussion on this topic, we need to talk about measurement.

Washington, D.C. is promoting its high degree of inclusivity and diversity in the region’s tech sector, compared to the national average, as a competitive advantage to attract more technology conventions and drive long-term economic growth for a broader cross-section of local communities.

Entitled, selfish and lazy – three words I commonly hear when describing Millennials. As a millennial in the Meetings and Events industry, however, what I see and feel is worlds’ apart from the words above.

Think about the last conference you attended and try to recall: was there an all-male panel? And what about the conference before that? In fact, have the majority of panel discussions you’ve attended, organised or - if like me, you identify as male – participated in been all-male? Sadly, for most the answer is “yes”…

Understanding attendee profiles and how they behave is vital to any organisation. Attracting millennials or different age groups to any type of event plays a key role in its success, but also comes with several challenges. Ways of engaging with millennials for example, are quite different from the ways of getting Generation X or Baby-boomers involved.

What do event industry leaders think about the future of events? We have asked seven inspiring women about the future of the event industry. The event industry is an incredible environment made of exceptional individuals. A very, very large portion of them happen to be women. Without getting into the diversity talk, which is not the matter of this post and that we have covered many times, we’ve decided to ask some leaders in events to discuss the future of our industry and guess what, they are all women.

A number of people critiqued the photo for its lack of diversity. Their argument? If the United States is a diverse, multi-cultural nation, then shouldn’t the interns working for the individuals who represent the country be diverse as well? This instance illustrates a larger movement towards diversity both inside and outside of events.

No matter what role you play in the convention industry, you’ve most likely spent plenty of time discussing Millennials over the past few years. How do they want to learn? What are the best social channels to connect with prospective Millennial attendees? What motivates them to register for a face-to-face event? The findings of a new survey of more than 1,000 US consumers have answered another key question: do Millennials want to stay in hotels?

Biases help us make sense of the millions of pieces of data we encounter daily. It is a normal part of how humans make decisions, a “mental shortcut” that fills in gaps in our knowledge with similar data from past experiences and cultural norms. Unconscious bias applies to how we perceive other people. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can lead to bad decisions. These shortcuts create prejudices that over time create the lenses through which we process information and make decisions. If we are serious about promoting diversity in business, we need to ask ourselves and our companies tough questions about unconscious bias.

Mamava Suites, first created in 2013, are private, stationary, freestanding pods for moms to nurse or pump in that can be found at airports, convention centers and other venues around the country. Even better for meeting planners, Mamava recently launched an inflatable, pop-up version of the suite, which debuted at the Women in Aviation International conference in March.

One of the most common difficulties that association meeting planners face is how to offer educational materials at annual conferences. The educational resources that associations create for membership are the number one resource they have to offer. For years meeting planners have had to create, edit, and produce these materials via print or even putting them online or in a mobile app. Now with the emergence of Millennials in the workforce, yet another dilemma faces each and every one of you.

In a recent survey, we asked meeting professionals to let us know the process behind their speaker selections. We’ll be publishing data from the full study in an upcoming issue of Convene, but here’s one of the most interesting results.

White male seems to be the trend when it comes to speaker line ups at events. Are you brave enough to change that? A couple of weeks ago the event industry earned its first internet meme, courtesy of Congrats, you have an all male panel!

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